27. Maddy

Chapter 27

Maddy

M y heart is racing as we fly, fear of what the leader of the Valkyrie might want to talk to me about warring with the fascination of being over Featherblade for the first time. Her vines have me tight in their grip, and I feel no nervousness of falling, so I let my eyes roam and try to calm my mind.

The view is absolutely magnificent. Sigrun soars high over Odin's High Hall and then banks left beyond the temple. I look toward Harald's bush and the supposed Bear Wing but still see nothing. She banks right toward the central trunk, and I know that the aerial platforms are somewhere in this direction, but then she heads toward the thick foliage. A circular building juts out of the leaves, and with a surge of nerves, I realize it must be the Gryphon's Nest.

Sigrun alights on a small platform out at the front, and her vines slowly recoil once I'm stable on the wood beside her. "Follow. "

I trail behind her through an open archway that leads into a circular hall. There are another four doors off it, and pedestals display vases, weapons, and artifacts, as well as a series of trunks and chests. I itch to go and look at all of them. Sigrun's wings are tucked behind her, although the space is easily big enough to accommodate them. She walks toward one of the doors. "In here," she says. I follow, no question of disobeying her to look at the displayed items.

We enter a room that my parents would call a receiving room. It's got comfortable furniture everywhere, long counters covered with glasses and decanters full of liquids, bookcases filled with tomes, and a huge fur rug in the middle. Most of one wall is windows, and all that is visible through them is the thick green canopy of Yggdrasil .

"Why are you keeping company with Kain the Ruinous?" Sigrun asks, and I snap my attention from the windows to her.

She's standing at the counter and picks up a porcelain pot in the shape of a falcon.

"He keeps company with me," I say, "not the other way around." I pause and then add " Hersir ," because I don't know how to address her. She throws me a look over her shoulder as she pours liquid from the falcon pot into two small mugs.

She's so very, very beautiful. Her skin is the deepest, richest color of bark, and her hair every shade of green I can think of, knotted and tied together in intricate braids. There are strands of gold weaved through the green, and the beads that end her braids are all shining berries or fruits of the earth.

"Do not call me hersir ," she says. "It means 'small commander' in the ancient tongue. Answerable to a king, or even a jarl." Her eyes flash. "I answer only to the gods."

I nod. "I'm sorry. How shall I address you?"

"Sigrun will do fine," she says. "Sit."

I try to calm my nerves as I lower myself into one of the chairs and rest my hands in my lap. There are so many things to look at, and my emotions are so overwrought that it's hard to focus.

I fear I'm in a strange place between completely numb and total breakdown.

"Tea?" she asks.

It seems strange that the leader of the Valkyrie is making me tea. I stand. "I can do it."

"It's already done," she says. "You know, you're the reason I'm here, Princess Madivia." I squash the churning in my stomach. I suspected as much, but I don't admit it.

"Maddy is fine," I say quietly.

"Erik told me about the bear."

I nod, because I'm not sure what to say.

"Can you tell me about her?" Sigrun asks.

"No," I say quietly. "I wish I could, but I can't tell you anything."

"He tells me that she acted independently of you rather than possessed you with her strength. Is that true? "

"Yes."

"To save the life of the fire-fae."

Shit. Now it feels like I was lying when I said he was attaching himself to me and not the other way around. I nod in agreement, though. She already knows it's true.

"The rooks have tales of her saving you from drowning when two other rooks attacked you in the water."

"Yes."

"Have you spoken with her?"

"No."

"And your ice magic. Tell me about that."

I try to tamp down the embarrassment. "It started when I first saw her. I am having trouble controlling it."

Sigrun walks over with the two cups of tea and sets one down on a small wooden stump in front of me.

"I see that." She sits, tucking her wings in tight behind her, and I can't help but stare at the feathers now that I'm this close. She's just magnificent. Her presence, her aura—everything about her is completely overwhelming. "Have you always been different, Maddy?" she asks me.

"Yes. My whole life."

"Featherblade has taken an interest in you, but I was wrong. I do not believe that you are something new at all," she says quietly, her green eyes locked on mine. There's no cruelty or question in her tone. It's simply a musing that she's made out loud. There's a flicker beside her, and my eyes are drawn to it instantly.

As I stare, a falcon forms before me. She languidly beats her wings, hovering over Sigrun's shoulder, and her eyes gleam like polished amber. Feathers of deepest forest green shimmer with iridescence, and her curved beak looks as sharp as a dagger.

"She's beautiful," I breathe.

Sigrun's eyes sharpen. "He," she corrects me.

"He." I nod.

"Erik told me you would be able to see him. Will you let him read you?"

"Read me? What do you mean?"

"My val-tivar is exceptional at reading fae," she says slowly.

I think about Brynhild and the Ice Court Palace, and fear clamps around me. I don't want Sigrun to know about my memory powers, and if Brynhild didn't manage to find out last time, surely this exceptional Valkyrie will. I'm not ready to give that secret up yet. It belongs to me, and it has my whole life. I can't just pass it over.

At my hesitation, Sigrun speaks again. "If you don't want to give up information, he won't force you to. He'll only be able to take what you willingly give."

I'm certain that's a lie. I believe that her bird could get anything he wanted from me if I let him in.

My doubt must show on my face, because Sigrun surprises me with a smile. "Well, at least you're not an idiot. That's good to know. Of course he'll take what he wants once he's in."

I let out a long breath.

"Tell me about the fainting," she says .

It's not a subject I usually want to talk about, but at least we've moved on from the bird getting into my brain. "It's happened to me my whole life," I say.

"Have you spoken to Erik about healing it?" she asks me.

"Yes, but he said broken brains are much, much more difficult to fix than broken bodies."

"You could let him try."

"I could," I say hesitantly.

She frowns at me. "What on Yggdrasil would stop you? If you are flying, if you are swimming, if you are at any kind of height or a dangerous moment in the middle of a battle, then losing consciousness is surely a death sentence."

I let out a long sigh. "The fainting is going to kill me anyway," I say.

Her scowl deepens. "What do you mean?"

"It's terminal. They told me when I was young. One day I won't wake up. The other Valkyrie already know this," I say, surprised that she doesn't, but she's still scowling at me. Her bird flaps its wings, and I freeze as it moves closer to me.

"He's not entering your mind," Sigrun says dismissively. Her eyes have darkened, their usual rich green turning the same shade as the deep plumage on her bird's back and tail.

The falcon flies over me in fast circles, and I tense as I stare up at it, unsure what to do. It only lasts a moment, though, and then Sigrun folds her arms across her chest.

"Just as I thought. Madivia, I am one of the original nine Valkyrie. Do you know what our purpose was when Odin first made us?"

I nod. "Yes, you were battlemaidens."

She nods. "Correct. We escorted the souls of those we saw were worthy of Valhalla from the battlefields when they died. The ability to judge an individual's soul comes from the battlemaidens, and it is the same magic Featherblade uses here." I nod, a tiny bit breathless. "I deal with the dead. I have flown over a thousand battlefields, watching and waiting for those about to die. I know when somebody has the mark of death hanging over them." She leans forward, and I stop breathing altogether. "Madivia, let me tell you with absolute certainty that there is no mark of death over you."